Micah 7:9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me… The consequences of national backsliding could only be national judgments. This the prophet foresees; and in the name of the pious remnant, he turns to God for that hope and consolation which nothing on earth can yield. As for the chastisement which the Jewish Church was about to suffer, she is taught, in our text, to use the language of submission and of hope. Learn from the text, what are the feelings, what is the behaviour of a child of God under affliction. I. HE SUBMITS HIMSELF TO GOD. Various are the trials which the people of God are called to endure. There is no promise that they shall be exempt from distressing circumstances. Each one shares the common sorrows of humanity. Each one has also sorrows peculiar to himself, arising from his disposition and circumstances. Yet, in all, the real child of God beholds God's hand. He knows that, whatever he may have to suffer, it is from the Lord. Knowing, then, whence his troubles come, the child of God bows beneath the chastisement, it may be with a keen feeling of their loss, or woe, but with a patient submission to God's will. II. HE JUSTIFIES GOD. Pride may sometimes enable a man resolutely to bear evils which cannot be avoided. A naturally cheerful temper, also, will not feel the burden of sorrow so heavy as it is felt by a mind naturally anxious and desponding. But Christian submission is accompanied by a feeling which mere cheerfulness cannot produce, and which pride steadily opposes — a feeling of conscious guilt. Every grief is the offspring of sin. The Lord afflicts us, either that we may not forget our original deserts, as children of wrath; or, because we have committed some new transgression; or, as a means of correcting and renewing our naturally corrupt hearts. The child of God, therefore, while he smarts beneath the stroke of chastisement, acknowledges the propriety of it. He submits, for he knows that he has deserved it. This is the state of mind which God desires to behold in every sinner. This is the very end for which earthly trials are sent. III. HOPES IN GOD. "Until He plead my cause." Trust in the mercy of God is no less the duty of a true Christian, than submission to the will of God and an acknowledgment of His justice in afflicting us. The child of God puts his trust in that very hand which smiteth him. Faith enables him to see, that chastisement, when patiently endured, is a sign of his adoption. Being assured of this, he can trust his Father's kind affection for removing the trial in due time. Thus doth the afflicted child of God "lean only upon the hope of His heavenly grace." Worldly sorrows thus become light and tolerable even when they are manifestly the consequences of sin. As I have cautioned you against a merely proud submission to God, and against an impenitent confession of your sinfulness, let me also warn you against a presumptuous hope of God's mercy. God is a "jealous" God. There is a hope which will prove at last no better than a vain presumption: and the Bible does not leave us in doubt as to what that hope is. It is the hope of the hypocrite. It is the hope of the careless, thoughtless sinner, who talks loudly about God's mercy. There is but one way in which you are authorised to hope in God. Approach Him with deep and heartfelt penitence; abhor and forsake every sin; and then your confidence in Him will stand on a secure foundation. (J. Jowett, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. |
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